Junker confident Big 12 will thrive

Dave Matter

Saturday

Jun 26, 2010 at 12:01 AMJun 26, 2010 at 7:43 AM

John Junker is widely considered one of the most powerful figures in college football, but as conference realignment threatened to shake up his sport the last several months, the president and CEO of the Fiesta Bowl and Insight Bowl watched from the sideline, wondering with every other bowl official how their industry would be affected. Final prognosis: Not very much. The Big 12 Conference, a partner with both of Junkerís Phoenix-area bowls, lost two members, Colorado and Nebraska. With only 10 schools left in the mix, the Big 12 is expected to drop its championship game ó a move that could prove to affect the bowls more than any conference reshuffling.

The Big 12 champion will continue to play in the Fiesta Bowl ó unless it qualifies for the BCS title game ó while the Insight Bowl is moving up the ranks three spots in the Big 12 selection order and will choose after the Cotton Bowl and Alamo Bowl.

I caught up with Junker earlier this week ó check out Saturdayís story on realignmentís impact on the Big 12 bowls ó and hereís more from our conversation.

Matter: Now that realignment has taken place, what kind of impact do you expect the changes to have on your bowls and for all the Big 12 bowls?

Junker: From a bowl perspective, itís potentially very exciting because (without a conference title game) we would have had a lot more Big 12 teams playing in the national championship game, which would have included most recently the Tigers. I know that traditionally Big 12 teams have pretty solid non-conference schedules. It seems like Missouriís had Illinois leading off the schedule for many years now Ö So, I think it turned out, for us because I canít speak for anyone else, but for us itís terrific. I think itís terrific for the conference. Would it be neat if everyone was together with 12 teams and everything worked out? Sure, it would have been. But thatís not reality. And a bigger part of reality is how people rallied to put this together to the advantage of so many.

Matter: But I canít imagine the Big 12 bowls were too thrilled to see Nebraska leave the conference. How disappointing was it to lose a school that traditionally travels well to bowls?

Junker: Nebraska is an attraction for any game, anywhere, anytime. At the same time, if there was a better fit for Nebraska, being that there was really no collateral damage ó and for some time we were looking at pretty substantial collateral damage or at least some universities were ó I have to say this is probably as good a storybook ending as one could come up with.

Matter: And you never know, you could always have a chance to select Nebraska as your Big Ten team for the Insight Bowl.

Junker: We have thought about that, and thatís potentially exciting. Weíre one of two bowl games that has a Big 12 and Big Ten matchup. Itís been a wonderful matchup, and itís going to continue to be good. We have a very fine relationship with the good people at the Big Ten, and if thereís a better fit somehow that makes sense and still allows the traditions that have been a longstanding part of games in the Big 12 to work then, I think you have to step back and applaud people that got that done.

Matter: It sounds like the Big 12 will drop its conference championship game. Bowl games historically havenít been wild about teams that are coming off a loss in that game. Is it safe to say that getting rid of that game helps the Big 12 bowl selection process?

Junker: For postseason purposes, it does nothing but good things for Big 12 teams. You get into the subject of, ĎDoes that mean theyíre ducking competition?í But I want to tell you, a 12-game schedule with the teams that are constituted in the league, everybody playing everybody, plus what in most cases is pretty solid nonconference schedules, nobody from the Big 12 is going to back into a championship game. It just wonít happen. I think from the standpoint for what draws attention and whatís meaningful, I hand it to the SEC. Their championship game is a phenomenal property in many ways. But I think itís five times ó you can probably tell me ó that Big 12 teams have entered that game and come up short, including some very fine teams. Ö There was the year Oklahoma was No. 1 in the country and played in minus-10 degrees in Kansas City and lost to a great K-State team. Everybody respected the job Bill Snyder did with that team, but itís different when you look at the entirety of the regular season to judge a 12-game season. People can make pretty good judgments on that when judgments need to be made. I think itís going to be great for the Big 12 because if Missouri does what it did three years ago, well, then theyíre going to the national championship game.

Matter: The way Big 12 bowls select their participants has caused some controversy in years past, but how crucial is it that bowls have the flexibility to choose any eligible team, regardless of win-loss record or head-to-head results?

Junker: Business-wise itís very important. For the Insight Bowl weíre basically doubling our payout this year. I believe out of all the bowl games in this renegotiation we had the largest increase of any bowl game out there. So, weíre excited but a little nervous because we have to pay the bills. With that kind of approach, we need to have the kind of flexibility to be able to determine what makes commercial sense.

Having said that, thereís only a certain range of possibilities that you have. Weíre not going to be able to stoop down and take a 6-6 team in the (Insight Bowl). At this level weíre at now, weíre going to have a certain tier of teams and within that tier, youíll have a little bit of selection. I just canít call anybody in the conference when thereís three games difference, and that hasnít happened anyway.

In our case we donít let the Fiesta Bowl necessarily determine who weíre having in the (Insight Bowl), but last year was really a unique year. It was the first year ever we felt pressure from local business interests. I donít want to say the pressure was intense, but the need was intense. You know how the economyís been, and weíve had people who have supported us for years who always understood that weíve been it for the long term, but they also said they really needed us to pay attention to (hotel) room nights. Weíve never been a bowl thatís put that first. And we didnít put it first last year, but it was more pronounced and a greater emphasis than itís ever been before. I will say that.

Matter: Those decisions can upset certain schools, but in some years can your team selections be the determining factor that decides the bowlís survival?

Junker: You do have to do that. To a certain extent, itís frustrating. But I also realize we often have imperfect outcomes. Thatís a knock on the BCS and on the bowl system, and I think that amounts to a less than realistic view on life because life is a continual encounter with imperfections.

Matter: What was it like to watch the realignment story unfold from your position as a bowl executive?

Junker: The hardest thing is you have respect for everyone in the process, but itís very hard to watch people you know and respect who have very difficult jobs. A lot of people think, ĎOh, Mike Alden gets paid to go to football games. I would like his job.í We see how hard people work and how seriously engaged they are with doing a good job and how much of their personal and family life it takes and how much effort goes into it. When you saw so many unresolved issues, and so much angst and so much worry and so much at stake, we had a lot of empathy for people all over the country. We were very, very happy for (Big 12 Commissioner) Dan Beebe because heís done a very solid job as commissioner and is a solid guy and deserved to have good things happen.

At the same time you also realize why people were looking at other options, too. Itís never pleasant to watch people undergo that kind of stress and anxiety. But I guess the one silver lining to it is things got resolved, it looks like, on all fronts. Secondly, you have to be thankful that weíre in an industry thatís so important to so many people that this really dominated sports news for a couple months. Itís not something people arenít interested in, and thatís a good thing. Itís really great that college football is identified by ESPN now as clearly the No. 2 sport in the country. And thatís really a tremendous thing to say about the sport that we all love.

Matter: How confident are you that this restructured Big 12 is going to last? Can these 10 schools stay together and be successful?

Junker: I feel very comfortable thatís the case. Iíve heard from virtually everybody in the conference. I think thereís a really healthy sense of moving forward for the long-term. Iíve read so many stories that Ďthe next shoe will fall next year,í but I donít buy that. I think thereís been a really healthy re-examination of where people are and why and what the benefits of this are. Iím not the guy who a chancellor or president consults on that stuff, so I donít want to report to have any lofty place in the process. But I am fortunate enough to talk to a number of people, and I donít think Iíve seen so many happy people in that conference and such a solid sense of moving forward.

Matter: For the handful of schools that considered other conferences, was this a case of the grass not always being greener on the other side?

Junker: Not only that but there a lot of great things preserved, including geographic sanity in terms of travel and time. A lot was written about how this was Texasí deal and everyone was bowing down to Texas. Well, they might have been an initiator of their ideas, but I guarantee you every one of the football coaches thinks theyíve got a great shot when they line up against them. Theyíre going to be ready to play the Longhorns whenever that is. That healthy aspect of competition is always going to be there in college football. But I donít ever blame anyone for looking out for their self interests in an enlightened and fair manner.

The Arizona Diamondbacks right now are not the best team in baseball, but they had the Yankees in town, and isnít it funny that they had their best crowds of the season. Thereís a lot of Yankee fans everywhere and thereís a lot of people who hate the Yankees. But the Yankees are pretty important to the health of baseball. Everyone needs someone to play against. The game with KU might be the biggest one of the season for Missouri, but having Oklahoma, Texas and Texas A&M, who are out their as rivals and a team they want to line up against and beat, thatís a great motivating factors for a lot of people.

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